Professor in a tree over TransMountain Pipeline vows not to come down – By Lynda V. Mapes (Seattle Times) / Aug 8 2020
At 63, professor Tim Takaro didn’t see himself as a tree sit protester.
But now he’s living 82 feet up in the air on a sling between two cottonwoods, in a one-man protest against the expansion of the TransMountain Pipeline.
Takaro is a Vancouver-area physician and professor of health sciences on sabbatical from Simon Fraser University. He has published studies about the health risks of the pipeline expansion, spoken at review hearings for the project and petitioned his government to stop it. So far, to no avail.
The estimated $12 to $15 billion project was purchased by the Canadian federal government from developer Kinder Morgan in 2018.
The expansion twins an existing pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia, nearly tripling the capacity to move tar sands oil from the interior of the country to the sea, with the goal of capturing better prices in overseas markets. The expansion is well underway, with an estimated 5,000 people at work on the project, despite multiple court challenges and the steadfast opposition to the project in B.C., including from many First Nations.
Continue to article: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/professor-in-a-tree-over-transmountain-pipeline-vows-not-to-come-down/
